Zero-field (ZF) μSR measurements were performed on single crystals of the high temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6+x, for x≥0.67. Contrary to early ZF-μSR studies, we find that the muon-spin relaxation function evolves significantly as a function of temperature and oxygen content. The relaxation rate of the ZF-μSR time spectra exhibits a local minimum near 55 K and a subsequent increase with decreasing temperature. These features weaken considerably with decreasing x. A comparison to the results of nuclear quadrupole resonance experiments on highly doped samples suggests that these observations are associated with the build up of long-range charge correlations and not spontaneous orbital moments as suggested by Sonier et al. (Science 292 (2001) 1692).

Publication date

2003-02

Language

English

Affiliation

National Research Council Canada; NRC Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences